Return to Innocence
by Ashika
Summary: It's A.C. 193 and Heero is training to commence with Operation Meteor. Usagi is somehow in this time, having just lost everyone and everything she loved to Chaos. Why should Heero believe in an angel to save him when she doesn't even believe in herself?
1. Remember Everything

**Title: Return to Innocence  
  
Author: Ashika  
  
Summary: Chaos has destroyed everything Usagi held dear, and she's left in the middle of the year A.C. 193 with nothing but some magic that is useless in this time (there aren't any Youma around to destroy or people to exorcise), the clothes on her back, and some retractable wings. Heero sits on the edge of Operation Meteor, its initiation nearly ready to commence. So why should he believe in an angel to save his emotionless soul when she can't even save herself?   
  
Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon, for now. :P Besides, if I did . . . do you really believe I'd be writing the plots as fanfiction? I think not. This was also inspired by the song Return to Innocence by Enigma. I don't own the song or band either. ******

* * *

  
**A.C. 193**   
  
He clenched his jaw as his breath began to come harder. He ran fast, as fast as he could. His gundam was a thousand meters away, and the distance was closing. He didn't have much time left before the whole place blew up.   
  
_One minute left._   
  
He could hardly breathe, he was running so fast. He should have given himself more time to get out, but he just hadn't been able to reset the timer without wasting valuable seconds. His eyes started to blur as he tried to run faster; his legs burned with the lactic acid that was slowly building up.   
  
_Thirty seconds._   
  
He frowned as he tried loping, and shook his head. That was even worse. He began to stumble, and quickly righted himself. This was no time for mistakes. Mistakes meant a failure of the mission. Time flew by as he counted the seconds in his head. He was so close, just another hundred meters.   
  
_Fifteen seconds. _  
  
His breath caught as he turned his head to look behind and saw a girl. She stood behind the chain-link fence with a look of innocent curiosity lighting her face. Her light brown hair swayed slightly in the breeze as she watched him run to the forest. The question in her eyes was left unanswered as the buildings behind her abruptly blew up, her along with them.   
  
He fell to the ground as the explosion knocked him off his feet. His breath came is harsh gasps as he lay on the ground. Tears threatened to fall as he considered the girl standing against the fence. He should never have looked back. Never look back, an old adage by a very wise man many years ago. As he opened his eyes, they swiftly hardened. Emotions fell off his face as quickly as the sweat dripped off his body.   
  
Emotions were a weakness. Dr. J had told him so.   
  
Now Heero Yuy knew why. 

* * *

Her crystal blue eyes shimmered with tears. They were gone, all gone. All of her senshi, Mamo-chan, her daughter; they were all dead. Chaos had killed them in His damned eternal pursuit of power.   
  
The tears dripped down her face as she silently wept, letting the endless expanse of space take her sorrow. She slipped into a dream-like state, remembering those who had died for her. It was essentially her fault, that they were dead. She stifled a sigh as she slowly drifted back to earth. No one would notice her. The only ones who ever cared to see her were dead now.   
  
She didn't even flinch when a vision of Sailor Pluto came to her; didn't even move as Pluto flickered in her sight. Pluto seemed to be shouting, but she could only hear the whisper of words emit from Pluto's mouth.   
  
_"Usagi, believe in yourself. We will meet again. I have seen it. We will be together again. We swear."_   
  
Pluto slowly faded from view as Usagi mutely hovered in the air. Her wings fluttered as she began her descent to earth once again. Her landing upon the rich soil of earth was firm. The view presented to her was one of great destruction. Building upon building; the rubble still smoked from what seemed to be a catastrophic explosion.   
  
Catastrophic explosion…? No, a catastrophic explosion would be like when Chaos blew up half the world in his quest to kill her and the senshi…who stood in the way of his other quest. In either case, someone had blown this compound up.   
  
It looked like it had been a rather nice compound, as far as military areas go. She would know; she had spent some time in quite a few of them. A closer look brought her to a chain-link fence, the body of a small girl lying on the ground, her light brown hair scattered across the ground. The girl was barely breathing, her strength nearly gone. Not for the first time did Usagi wish that her healing powers were a little bit more concentrated on healing the wounded instead of solely on the possessed.   
  
The girl's eyelids slid open and she spoke one word before her breathing completely stopped:   
  
_"Angel."_   
  
But the child was wrong, wasn't she? 

* * *

**A.C. 202 **  
  
The gundam beat its wings against the nothingness of space, the twin buster rifles aimed at mobile doll after mobile doll. When Zero showed signs of no more enemies, the rifles lowered. Heero headed back to Earth, its blue surface dotted by spots of cloud and land.   
  
Then the Zero system went berserk. Signals showed one enemy in range; the rifles locked on and shot before he took a good look at what he was shooting at. As he drew closer the enemy appeared to be nothing more than a girl…with wings. An angel? Couldn't be…angels were figments of the imagination. They were a made up ideal by the creators of the Holy Bible. There was no evidence to the existence of such creatures, and the idea that they were only seen by "believers" was long since proved to be nonsense. They had clearly been delusional.   
  
In this era, religion had been eradicated through careful elimination of people who believed in a god other than the government. Or maybe the people who believed in a god were just too afraid to come out and proclaim their affiliation. They were smart then.   
  
But either way, there was an injured girl (who by all rights should have been killed by the blast) with wings floating – without an oxygen mask – in the middle of space. He grabbed her with the hands of his gundam and headed back down to Earth, the speed at a minimum. Damn if he was going to be the one to kill a real life angel, even if he didn't believe in them. 

* * *

**A/N: I hope you like this story so far. I realize I've skewed the whole little girl and blowing up thing from Heero's past (if you watched Endless Waltz) but she wasn't all that important to the story anyway. I've officially given up on really long chapters, so if anything, you'll be seeing chapters about this length. On the upside, this will mean faster chapters! I promise…I'm actually going to work on this one. I just think that since my other fic (The Chaos Theory) has basically been an original story, I'm having a lot more trouble with it. In case you're wondering, I have been working on that one. Anywho, you know the drill. Please review, or send me an email at ratty210hotmail.com! See ya next chapter. **


	2. Labs Are Bad

**Title: Return to Innocence  
Chapter: Two  
Disclaimer: Same ol' same ol'. I don't own anything.  
**   
*~~~~~*   
  
Her wings were really dirty.   
  
She wondered what she would have to do to clean them, but shrugged them into her shoulder blades. Usagi flicked them back out again; they weren't so dirty. In fact, they were clean. Well that solved that problem. She coughed and looked to her second problem: Heero Yuy. Who, in addition to trying to fry her with his glare, was pointing a decidedly deadly gun at her.   
  
She smiled at him, and replied to his previously voiced question, "I'm Tsukino Usagi. Or, well, at least I was. Well actually Usagi doesn't exist anymore. But I do. Does that make me still Usagi? Or am I someone else? But –"   
  
"Shut up! What are you?"   
  
Usagi bit down on her lip. "Ah...that's rather hard to explain. You see...going back to my previous ramble...I'm not exactly human. But I'm not a cyborg! I guess it would be more appropriate to equate me to an angel...or demon if you prefer. Wow! I sound like Ami-chan! How did that happen...?"   
  
Heero's jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed some more. This girl was insane. An angel? Or a demon? Was he really supposed to believe such nonsense? And this girl just continued to ramble on about insignificant matters!   
  
"So you are an angel?" His voice became mocking. "From who? God? Did God send you? Or, you seem to be Japanese, Buddha? Last I heard, Buddha didn't have little angels carrying out his handiwork, but what do I know?"   
  
Usagi scratched her head, "Well no, not really. I only said that you could compare me to one. To tell you the truth, I'm a Lunarian."   
  
"A what?"   
  
"Lunarian."   
  
Heero lowered the gun. This girl was just too ridiculous to be believed. But even so, she had been on the verge of death only a couple of hours ago. Now she was healthy as the proverbial horse. It wasn't as if she had been injected with any nanomachines. There hadn't been any nanos on hand, but even if he had he wouldn't have needed them. She had already been healing rapidly only twenty minutes after landing on Earth.   
  
He grabbed Usagi's arm and pulled her out to a relatively new truck. Duo had bought if for him. Well actually he had bought it for himself, and Heero had confiscated it on the grounds that Duo wouldn't need it as much as Heero would. Apparently he'd been right.   
  
But then his cell phone rang, and Usagi was still chattering in his ear. He glared at her, in the vain hope that she would quiet herself, and answered the phone.   
  
"Heero, what's up buddy? How's it going down...wherever you are? How's my _truck_?"   
  
"Fine, everything is fine."   
  
"That's...super. Hey, you got to come to Headquarters. Sally has a lead on some new upstarts, and she wants us to squash 'em or something. You know, the usual."   
  
"Affirmative, we'll be there soon."   
  
"We? Who is 'we'? Heero - !"   
  
Heero glared at the now silent phone. What a strange coincidence that was bringing him to Headquarters, when he was headed there anyway. Somehow a mission _would_ come up just before he brought some genetic freak to where she belonged. Not that he had any place to talk; Dr. J had played God with his genetics quite freely, as well.   
  
In any case, she'd be brought to a lab at the Preventer's HQ, and that would be the end of that. He hopped into the truck after stuffing the now silent girl into the passenger side and drove to his gundam; it would be faster to fly. Guess he wouldn't need that truck as much as he'd thought.   
  
*~~~~~*   
  
The ride to the really big machine wasn't very long, nor was the flight to the unknown destination. Heero wasn't talking, and Usagi had stopped trying. It wasn't really as if he was listening anyway.   
  
She wondered where they were going. They passed over trees, and then mountains, and then up to a military compound. A military compound. They were stopping in front of it.   
  
Three people came out of the compound; a man with a long swinging braid and Chinese man with slicked-back hair. It looked almost painful. The last was female; her braid was just as long as the man's, but thicker. Heero grunted beside her, and hopped out of the machine. His arms reached up to her and she jumped down.   
  
"Heero, it's good to see you! We're just waiting for Trowa and Quatre." Who were they?   
  
"Hn..."   
  
"Glad to see nothing's changed." The braided man's eyes turned to her. "And who's this babe?"   
  
"Usa –"   
  
Heero's voice snapped, "Leave her alone. She's here for the lab."   
  
The lab? What was the lab? And for that matter, why?   
  
"Why's she headed for the lab? She looks perfectly normal to me."   
  
"You should know better than anyone that appearances can be deceiving."   
  
The indignity! She never deceived anyone! She was just herself, no one else. Heck, he had even seen her with wings before he had seen her as regular human. She was normal! Really! She just had...some extra powers and stuff. Hadn't they ever watched X-men?   
  
"It doesn't matter. Sally, bring the girl to the lab. We will meet you in the briefing room. We haven't the time to worry about this, Trowa and Quatre will just have to catch up." The Chinese man's voice was cold, cold in a different way than Heero's, but somehow just as harsh. And the woman was pulling her into the building.   
  
She cried out, "Heero, where are they taking me?"   
  
Heero turned away and Usagi's wings burst out of her back. She flew above the compound; four guns were aimed directly at her. "Don't do this, Heero. Please don't leave me alone!" She looked at the woman, and tried desperately to see her face, but her eyes were spilling with tears. "Please don't hurt me."   
  
"What the hell? Yuy, Maxwell, subdue her!" The Chinese one was shouting, the memories were shouting, she was shouting. Everyone was shouting, and in the end, all she could do was drown in the sound. Her wings stopped beating and she fell.   
  
*~~~~~*   
  
**AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It was really great for all of you to do so, especially since most of you WEREN'T people I already knew and told to go and read this. Well I hope you liked this chapter! Don't forget to press the little purple button down there saying you'd like to review. Or send me an email at: ratty210@hotmail.com **


	3. Nanomachines

**Title: Return to Innocence  
Chapter Three  
Disclaimer: I don't wish. But I don't have either.**

* * *

Usagi could remember when she was the only person standing between Galaxia-slash-Chaos and the rest of the world. She had been floating, stagnant sword in hand, watching the pain and suffering hiding behind the cruel eyes of Galaxia. She could see the real Galaxia, the one Chaos had buried.   
  
She reached out, her hand to touch Galaxia's. And just before they joined, everything snapped. Everything fell apart. Chaos laughed from inside Galaxia's body and screamed. She screamed her triumph and shot into space, daring Usagi to follow.   
  
Usagi remembered following her into the black abyss of space, watching as Chaos laughed and destroyed city after city. She laughed even when Usagi destroyed her physical consciousness, because she knew what was going to happen. Chaos knew what Usagi would be condemned to: a life of destruction and sorrow.   
  
_"You don't really know what's going to happen, do you?" Chaos' smirk was disconcerting and Usagi was scared. More scared than she had ever been. To destroy people was wrong; it was something she had lived the past millennium fighting against.   
  
"Of course I do, I always do. You will become destruction. You will become me. The balance has shifted and the equilibrium must be centered once more. To destroy the darkness is only to destroy the light." The mouth of Galaxia laughed a painfully evil laugh she had laughed for centuries; mocking and taunting Usagi with the sound.   
  
"I won't, you know. I won't become your pawn."   
  
Chaos' glare was frightening and hateful; it burned. "You'll see. You will see."   
  
"I forgive you."   
  
Chaos sneered, "For what? Sparing your life?"   
  
"Actually, yes, and more significantly, I forgive you for loving Galaxia. For loving her power and wanting more. For loving everything she represented and wishing that you could be her. For loving the dream of her dream."   
  
"You don't make any sense, idiot."   
  
"But, most importantly, I apologize. I'm sorry for not being able to save you." Usagi embraced Chaos, and everything went black, then white, then black again... [1]_

* * *

She woke up in, predictably, a medical room. It was like a hospital; too superficially clean, too bright to balance the desperately dark shadows, and too happy to be anything but scary. Heero stood outside the door speaking to the woman from, Sally; she could see Heero's profile. His face was all sharp planes and harsh shadows. Dark brown hair fell over his eyes, and his long-fingered hands lay in a strained relaxation against his side.   
  
"–and that's everything?"   
  
"Yes, that's everything we could gather from the tests. We would need to run some more on her, but she has to be conscious for those. She didn't seem too happy about the coming here in the first place, and any involuntary tests are regularly unreliable."   
  
"Fine." His jaw muscles were clenching, and his fingers   
  
"Well what do you want me to do with her?"   
  
"Hn..." He turned and walked away, leaving Sally's question unanswered.   
  
"WAIT! Heero, where are you going? What do you want done with Usagi?" Her voice grew louder as he got farther away, and she finally gave up. "Damn, can't he just answer the damned questions and make _my_ job a little easier once in awhile?" She looked in at Usagi and gasped to see that she was awake.   
  
She rushed inside, "You're finally awake! How are you? How do you feel?" She checked the monitors bleeping around Usagi and brought out a needle and bottle labeled "Nano".   
  
"I'm fine, I feel fine."   
  
Sally checked her over once more and rubbed a bit of alcohol on her arm, "This will only hurt for a second. Now on the count of three; one, two..."   
  
The needle jabbed into Usagi's arm. "You said on three!"   
  
"I lied."   
  
The liquid advanced through her bloodstream. "What was that?"   
  
"Nanomachines, they live in the liquid. Now all you need to do is rest and they'll take care of the rest."   
  
"Nan-oh-machines?"   
  
"Yes, now rest."   
  
So she rested.

* * *

When she woke again she was in a large bed, the sun streamed generously through the large window and the smell of a hospital was gone. In fact, the room was surprisingly well-built and huge, and smelled like roses. The carpet was the color of peaches; it seemed the rest of the room was in the same theme.   
  
A pair of white pants with a white blouse was laid out on a near-by chair; she hopped out from the incredibly comfortable bed and onto the warm plush carpet. After retrieving and clothing herself, she walked out into the hallway. Long halls of sunlit gold stretched out before her, but a large burly man soon blocked her view.   
  
"Where would you like to go, miss?" His face was kind, for all of his strong build.   
  
"Uhm, do you know where Heero is?"   
  
"Please follow me, miss." He walked with silence and grace, with the force and lethal power of a veteran soldier.   
  
When they arrived, Heero stood with four other men – two of them the ones she had seen at the compound. Heero stepped in front of her, grabbing her arm and pulling her in front of the other men.   
  
"This is Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei. Treat them with respect; they are now your bodyguards." Usagi's eyes opened almost comically wide, they were WHAT?! How had she come from lab rat to person in need of protection? For that matter, how long had she been out?   
  
Excuse me?   
  
"What?"   
  
"You wanted to know how long you'd been out. You were unconscious for ten days, four hours, and forty-two minutes."   
  
"I didn't ask that."   
  
Duo spoke up, "You did! I heard it."   
  
Oh, ok then...   
  
"Well I didn't mean to."   
  
An awkward silence gathered around the group, and the Manguanac had slipped away during the exchange between Heero and Usagi. Duo, being the charismatic...Duo, that he was the one to break the silence.   
  
"So anyone hungry? 'Cause I'm hungry. Usagi, you hungry?" Usagi's eyes darted to him, and she gave an almost imperceptible nod. She didn't really trust him, and she still couldn't figure out why she trusted Heero.   
  
"Ok...great! So what's it going to be? We've got beef, turkey, salami, bologna...we got any of that liver left, Quat-man..."

* * *

**AN: I am SO happy with the response! It's really quite amazing. This will be short, because I don't really want to make this deceptively long, and I'll just answer a question asked in reviews. Well at least the one I can tell without giving away plot.   
  
[1]I stole the line from another fic, but I can't remember what it was. I only remember it was an X-men Logan/Marie fic.   
  
Q: Is she transformed as Eternal Sailor Moon or is she like the way she was at the end of Stars?   
  
A: _Yeah, pretty much._   
  
And _Suzaka_, thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind. I have a problem with making things unrealistically angsty. See how hard it is?! She's still really dark...and that's with me trying not to be. Anyway, it was reinforced by a few other people I know. Thanks, though! **

**Ps. Don't forget to review!**


	4. Interlude I

**Title: Return to Innocence  
Interlude  
Disclaimer: Not mine, period. **

* * *

"What do we need her for?"   
  
"You know what."   
  
"No really. I don't."   
  
"Shut up and let me explain then."   
  
"But, sir!"   
  
"Do you want to hear this or not?"   
  
". . ."   
  
"All right then. She is the last of them. Oh yeah, and get him, too."   
  
"Who's him?"   
  
"The Gundam pilot, get him"   
  
"Which one?"   
  
"Do I really need to spell everything out for you?"   
  
"No, sir. . ."   
  
"Precisely, now get to work!"   
  
"Are you sure this is wise?"   
  
"Are you sure it is wise to _question_ me?"   
  
". . ."   
  
"Good, now get to fucking work."   
  
"So which pilot was that?"   
  
"Fuck! Oh-four!"   
  
"And where is the girl, again?"   
  
"Jesus, do I need to say this again?"   
  
"Sorry, sir."   
  
"Fine, she's at the compound. Remember, she's got long black hair. Can't fucking miss her. Fuck."   
  
"Sorry, sir."   
  
"You're still fucking here?! Get the fuck going!"   
  
"Yes, sir. On my way, sir."

* * *

**AN: Sorry about the strangeness. I just felt I had to update, so here you guys go. Have fun with it, and guessing who "she" is. Not that it should be hard. Please don't forget to review!! **


	5. Gundam Sandrock

**Title: Return to Innocence **

**Chapter Four **

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Except this sad little plot.******

* * *

Grey metallic doors opened to show a large robot. The frown marring Heero's face was enough to convince everyone of the seriousness of the situation. Heero never frowned. In fact, she didn't think she had ever seen him smile either. Emotions were just foreign to his face...well except for that trademark glare of his.  
  
"That is Quatre's gundam." Heero never even turned around, his monotonous voice carrying loudly in the room. The tan robot – gundam – stood glinting in a room full of bridges and stairs. The obscene amount of gleaming metal in the room would have been enough to blind her, if Heero hadn't been glaring and frowning.  
  
Usagi and three of her four new bodyguards continued to follow the emotional Heero to the ro – gundam in the centre of the room. He finally stopped and turned around to face the group. His eyes were no longer glaring and his mouth was back into its regular straight line.  
  
"We believe that Quatre was kidnapped between the hours of 0300 and 0400. There was also a break-in at the compound where a young nurse was kidnapped as well."  
  
Duo raised an eyebrow, "How do we know that the nurse didn't just go outside of the compound to get some, ahem, action?"  
  
"Not once in her year long residency at the compound has she left the compound. This would indicate an anomaly, as well as the fact that she did not check out with the guards to let them know she had left. An acquaintance of hers went to check in on her at 0600 hours, as per usual, and found that she was not in bed and a possible experiment had been haphazardly left in her lab corner. She was noted for being meticulous as well as extremely punctual."  
  
Usagi stood with wide eyes. Had Heero actually just said all that? "What does all of that have to do with me?"  
  
Heero's eyes narrowed, preparing for a glare, "There is a kidnapper out to get people for unknown reasons. You are going to help us find the reason. You must also know that people may possibly be after you as well."  
  
"Well..."  
  
"Hn..." Heero turned away and walked toward the gundam, fully expecting everyone else to follow him. The clack of their boots echoed loudly against the metal walls. "There is blood on the gundam. It has been tested, and it is positive for the nurse's blood. What she was doing in here, no one knows. The cameras were turned off for an indeterminate amount of time as of now. We will know in two hours."  
  
"What –"  
  
"In the meantime, make sure you don't get killed."  
  
"What was the name of the nurse?"  
  
"Setsuna Meioh. A common Japanese boy's name. Oddly, this nurse was a woman."  
  
Usagi's eyes welled with tears and she ran from the harsh and ugly room. The remaining pilots stared. The mechanical lights hummed with artificial life.

* * *

**AN: The next chapter will be longer, I swear! I just felt bad about having nothing lately. Sorry, I've been busy with life. So I hope you enjoyed this short little sad chapter. Also, the next chapter will deal with Quatre, Setsuna, and the people from the interlude. And maybe a little of Heero and Usagi.**


	6. Duality

**Title:** Return to Innocence  
**Chapter Five  
Disclaimer: **You know the drill.

* * *

Heero's hand was bruising her skin – her perfect and creamy skin. Usagi's mouth was shaped in a perfect little 'o' but her face was decidedly red. 

"Never leave our sight intentionally again. Not unless we order you to." 

Duo watched Heero abuse Usagi for exactly 4.3 seconds before he rushed Heero and knocked him to the ground. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Heero's tone of voice was contemptuous. 

"I'm protecting Usagi. You gave me that job, didn't you?" Duo's American accent grated on Heero's ears – Duo could tell by Heero's clenched jaw. 

"Fine." 

"Fine? Nothing's fine. You won't let it be fine. You give us half-assed explanations. You don't tell us what's going on. Nothing is fine!" 

"Hn..." 

"Don't give me that grunting bullshit-" 

Usagi put her hand on Duo's clothed arm. "It's ok. It's really ok." 

Duo snarled, "It's not fucking ok. Mr. Perfect Soldier over there won't give us the time of day. Something huge is going on here, and he's still speaking as much as before!" 

"Duo, you need to calm down." She turned to Heero, "Calm him down, please!" 

"Hn..." 

Duo laughed angrily, "See, that's what I mean. He grunts and everyone just does what they think he wants. Well fuck that! It's time you gave us some real words. Some real information, you fucking jerk." His head snapped back as he felt his braid being pulled out of his head. "Ow, what the hell was that for?" 

"Duo, you need to calm down." 

"Stop pulling my braid!" 

"Not until you calm down." 

"Usagi, stop it!" 

"Are you finished?" 

Duo sighed. "Fine, yes. I'm finished. But I still think-" 

"Duo..." 

"Fine..." 

Trowa spoke from his spot in the corner of the room. His one green eye seemed to glare at Duo. "Good. What happens now, Heero?" 

Heero frowned and conceded, "I don't know."

* * *

Everything was blurry, and goodness he was tired. Quatre tried to sit up, but he didn't have the energy. He blinked and slowly shook his head from side to side. His vision cleared slightly, and when he turned his head to the right he could see someone on a bed similar to his. 

The figure's hair was very, well, green. Long and green. That was really all he could tell. 

An hour later he was still unable to do anything but lie on the bed. He grunted as he tried to sit up for what felt like the billionth time. He stopped when he heard the figure moan. He nearly stopped breathing in an attempt to listen to his room companion. 

Quatre went green with jealousy when the figure sat up immediately. She – well it was now obvious the figure was a she – put a hand to her head and looked around, much like he would have liked to do. 

"Who are you?" The woman spoke in even tones, with what seemed to be no accent. It was very odd. 

Quatre coughed. "I'm Quatre Raberba Winner. Of -" He coughed again and his voice was much hoarser, "Of Winner Corporations." 

She smiled – and where did she get such a perfect voice? – "Meioh Setsuna, well Setsuna, please, just call me Setsuna." 

He frowned. "I'm not accustomed to people introducing themselves with their last name first. Why do you do that?" 

"I always have." 

"Oh..." He would ask why but he couldn't summon the energy to ask. 

"You're tired. You should sleep again." 

Quatre silently agreed, but was also annoyed with how accurate that was. He was a Gundam Pilot for Heaven's sake! "Why would you think so?" 

"Your eyes are bloodshot. Your breathing is heavy and labored. There are dark circles under your eyes. I am a nurse, and have been for a very long time." Her voice had grown wistful. 

"Were you in the war?" 

"In a manner of speaking." 

"Oh..." 

"Now, please, sleep." 

"Yes, ma'am." 

And Quatre's vision went blurry again as he fell asleep.

* * *

The man in the white lab coat frowned. His scowl was menacing in his hard face. He did not seem like the type to be a scientist. He looked as if he should have been a soldier. The scar running behind his left ear and down his neck did not make him appear any more scholarly. 

His men cowered around him and he was annoyed. These men did not know how to understand the consequences of their actions. He did and he was not bothered. 

He would not rule the world. He would not destroy the world. He would not live forever. 

But his actions would. 

And as cliché as he felt, he knew it was for the best. It was for the good of the world and the good of the human race. They were disintegrating into some sort of mechanical pigs that he hadn't believed possible. 

What did his capture of the Gundam Pilot and the seemingly random nurse have to do with anything? The cowards surrounding him would never understand. But they and the world would know why soon. The difference between knowing and understanding was too much for them. But they would know. 

"Who is the next target, sir?" 

"A fellow scientist. You know the one. She would be on L2. Have her here in 24 hours or your head is mine. And I don't mean the one resting on your neck."

* * *

**AN: Thanks for reading. And being patient. So, yeah. The next target is pretty easy to figure out and not nearly as cryptic as the one before. Hope you liked it. As always, read and review! **


	7. Enter Blue

**Return to Innocence**

**Chapter Six**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing. **

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Far from being poor, though she lived in one of the cheaper districts of L2, Amy Brooks was a highly respected, and self-sufficient, scientist. If her blue hair was rather abnormal, there were few people who commented on it, preferring to wonder why she would dye her hair such an odd color.

The truth was, she was born with blue hair. It had been genetic anomaly. Her mother had had a nice shade of brown hair, while her father had a normal hue of platinum blonde.

Her hair was actually the reason she became a biological scientist. With such incredible IQ and analytical mind, she felt the need to understand what had happened to her DNA to produce blue hair. Within ten years of her twenty-first birthday, and consequently her graduation, she made major breakthroughs within the genetic community of scholars. None of these led to the reason for hair such as hers.

Therefore, she was having a very hard time believing anything that the man in front of her was saying. As a scientist, she was unable to have faith in his theory full of magic and the supernatural. _She_ was a Sailor Senshi? One of the Japanese urban legends?

_She_ was Sailor Mercury? "I'm Sailor Mercury?"

"Yes." So this scar-faced man was telling her she was the avatar for a ridiculously water-logged planet. Right. "And that is the reason you have blue hair."

All of this ridiculous information would have made her laugh if she hadn't been so overcome with shock that she hit her head on the cold metal floor and passed out.

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**AN: Sorry about the lateness and the shortness. I just couldn't think of what to say, and I've had this for awhile. So I'm just going to post it. Hope you guys enjoyed it.**


	8. Joke Unintended

Disclaimer: No ownie...

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Heero watched in perpetual silence as Usagi struggled against the strong handhold of one Trowa Barton. Trowa threw her down onto the blue wrestling mat and she screeched in frustration. Heero raised an eyebrow at her antics and crossed his arms in preparation for some more of her amusing tactics.

Usagi stood shakily once more, her face red with emotion and exhaustion. Trowa merely dropped into the standard wrestling position and waited for her to begin again.

Trowa closed his eyes and waited for Usagi. "I'm not going to hold back, Usagi."

"Yeah, well neither am I!"

The sparring continued as Usagi showed her peculiarly skilled and yet untrained talents. It appeared as if she knew basic, and some advanced, rudiments of sparring with the sword and fists. She was certainly very good at defense and dodging. Even so, within moments she was on the ground once more.

Trowa grunted and stood, holding his hand out to her. As she grabbed it and pulled herself up, Trowa glanced over at Heero and raised an eyebrow. "She is ready to be trained more extensively. But, of course you saw that all yourself."

Heero nodded curtly and walked from the room. Usagi gaped, wondering how long Heero had been standing there as she made a fool of herself. "Was he there the entire time?"

Trowa quirked a corner of his mouth and then chuckled. "Of course he was. He is much more protective of you than he would let on."

"Yeah, right." Usagi delicately snorted. "And pigs fly with little fairy wings around the mansion."

"Well, actually – "

Usagi held up a hand. "Don't even start."

Trowa smiled. "Let's go eat."

"Yes, food! I love food. You wouldn't happen to have any manga on hand?"

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Usagi's spine tingled as she felt herself being watched. The ham and cheese sandwich stopped halfway from the table to her mouth as she considered who would be watching her so intensely. Certainly the Manguanacs had been curious, but they had hardly been so scrutinizing. And they hadn't been quite so curious since Quatre had disappeared.

The names of each bodyguard of hers ran through her head and finally settled on – Heero. Of course it would be Heero. He watched her with a concentration worthy of religious worship. And if she had learned anything these past nine years of observation, though never exactly aging, it was that people didn't believe in anything but themselves.

"You can come out you know." Heero moved from the shadows with the speed and grace of a predator. His arms hung loosely against his side, but she could see the tension ready to react at a moment's notice.

"What do you want?" Heero's voice was sharp but she ignored the tone. She did not speak for a moment and his jaw was clenched in obvious hostility.

"I just wanted to make sure it was you." She smiled beatifically and resumed eating her sandwich.

"Why?"

"You just never know who'd be lurking in the shadows."

Heero glared and sat on a wooden stool. "There is no one. I would know and have taken them out before you had the chance to notice."

Usagi said nothing as she chewed the last bits of her lunch. "Well, thank you." She paused. "So what did you think of my skills as a combatant."

"Horrible."

Usagi raised a brow and stood, walking her plate to the dishwasher. "So when will I be starting formal training?"

Heero grunted. "You will begin today. You are in desperate need of training."

"Thanks again." She grinned. "So are you going to be the one to train me?"

"For most of it."

"For how long?"

"For as long as it takes. And I will never hold back."

"You could never be so cruel." Usagi watched as Heero's face lifted in a small smirk.

"I could." His tone was dry and almost sarcastic. The joke was small, and was barely worth noticing, except for the fact that it came from Heero.

Usagi's eyes widened in surprise and she laughed. "I didn't know you could make jokes."

"I can't."

"You can! You just did."

He scoffed. "I did not."

Usagi smiled and walked from the room. "You did so. I heard it and I'm telling Duo!"

Heero's eyes narrowed imperceptibly and he frowned. He had to stop her. He would never hear the end of it from Duo if she told.

* * *

Duo jumped out from his own hiding place in the kitchen. Heero and Usagi were now gone and he could officially say that Heero had made a joke. Probably the only one in his entire life.

He ambled into the dojo, though why Quatre had a dojo in his mansion he didn't know, and watched as Wufei swung his sword in a series of katas. He cleared his throat. When Wufei did not react, he cleared it louder.

"Ahem..."

Wufei paused in his kata before continuing, ignoring the braided fool.

"Wufei, you gotta hear this!"

Wufei came to a stop and glared at Duo. "I do not have to hear anything. I am in the middle of something important. You can tell me later." He muttered. "Idiot."

Duo was not to be deterred. "You have to hear this now!"

Wufei began a new series and ignored him.

"It's about Heero."

The graceful slash came to a sudden stop. "What about him?"

Duo flashed a million-watt smile, "Come to the Rec Room. I'll tell you and Trowa at the same time."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "I do not have the time for this. Tell me now or never."

Duo paused to consider. "Ok, if you put it that way." He paused again for effect. "Heero made a joke."

Wufei, already in the midst of another kata, finally processed what Duo had said and tripped, narrowly missing impaling himself on his sword. "You idiot!"

Duo jumped to attention and ran as quickly as possible from the room. With any luck, his braid would be intact for at least another day after what had just happened. His poor, poor braid...

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AN: Hey guys, so this is actually quite a bit longer than normal! I'm trying to get at least a little bit back to my original plan...I mean, it's lately been more of action than any re-construction of Heero's innocence. Ah, well. Please review and let me know how it's going.

Ps. Check out Angelight's Cross My Heart. Lately I've been writing the chapters, but she wrote the latest one. Did that make any sense?


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